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The cinema technologies company saw overall revenue fall 9 percent to $71.9 million.
By Etan Vlessing
Canada Bureau Chief
Imax continued a box office recovery on its global screens during the first quarter as Dune: Part Two has pulled in more than $143 million in global box office to date, or 21 percent of the film’s total gross, the cinema technologies company reported Thursday.
Overall revenue at the giant screen technologies company came to $79.1 million, down 9 percent from a year-earlier $86.9 million.
However, Imax posted net income at $3.3 million, up from a year-earlier profit of $2.5 million, as the company continued to recover from the impact of the pandemic on the exhibition sector.
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The adjusted net profit per share in the latest period came to 15 cents, which compared to 16 cents per-share in the same year-ago period.
Content Solutions revenue — Imax’s business from agreements with the major studios and filmmakers — come to $34 million, an increase of 6 percent year-over-year, underpinned by box office growth worldwide. Technology Products and Services revenues, or the proceeds from the sale, lease and maintenance of Imax’s theater systems network, by contrast, fell 16 percent to $43.1 million.
During the latest quarter, global box office of $261 million marked the company’s third-highest-grossing first quarter ever. Also during the latest quarter, Imax recorded $55 million in local-language box office, and Queen Rock Montreal earned over $5.5 million and delivered the biggest opening weekend for an Imax exclusive event release.
“Our industry-leading momentum is fueled in part by our strategic expansion of the Imax value proposition; increasingly, our technology is driving content creation as much as it is content delivery. Oppenheimer, Dune – Part Two and Godzilla x Kong demonstrate that more and more of today’s commercially and critically successful blockbusters are shot with Imax cameras for the Imax platform — which drives our global box office and makes our systems even more of a ‘must have’ for global exhibitors,” Imax CEO Richard Gelfond said in a statement that accompanied his latest financial results.
Besides touting upcoming Hollywood tentpoles on Imax screens, many of which used the company’s proprietary cameras in production, Gelfond on a morning analyst call also talked about “doc-busters,” or documentary tentpoles like the upcoming original film The Blue Angels.
The documentary, to debut May 17, is produced in partnership with J.J. Abrams and Glen Powell and was shot by the same team behind Top Gun: Maverick. “Its aerial footage rivals anything in that megahit,” Gelfond insisted. Other documentary tentpoles upcoming from Imax include Stormbound, produced by Adam McKay.
“Our diversified content strategy — with Hollywood and local language blockbusters, Imax documentaries and new events and experiences — is delivering great results, resulting in a Q1 that was among our best of all time at the global box office,” Gelfond told analysts.
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